He’d invited me to dinner. We ended up at one of my most favorite places in the city. I forget if he had ever been there. He has this child like wonder about him with everything… you probably wouldn’t believe it even if he had.

They had bacon wrapped scallops! Thinly sliced carne doused in garlic and other delicious baths lined a hibachi grill in the center of the table.

The whole experience was jovial. Laughter filled the air with quips and punch about art, politics, polyamory, geekiness and oh so much more.

And then he brought me home.

The vibrant hum died down a bit. It was quiet and dark. Above us hung colored paper lanterns. My clothes were a mess on the floor… but I still had mine on as well.

“Hold on.” I said breaking the silence a moment.

I turned around and started punching away at keys.

“Dance with me?”

And the stars got a bit brighter. The brightly colored fish on the curtain smiled back at me and winked. He held me as we danced.

He had a firm but gentle presence about him. He commanded the evening and didn’t even need to say a word. He took my breath away with just his existence and…

Scene: a bedroom in disarray in front of a laptop in Culver City, Los Angeles adjacent

Today was going to be legendary. Perhaps almost as legendary as our introduction in the first place. How’s the fairy tale start? Oh yes… Once upon a time…

There used to be a site years ago called I’m in Like With You. It still exists (under a different all around name), but not in the way that it did all those years ago. The site, as it would turn out, would also be life changing. Many relationships and connections of all sorts- romantic, professional, friendship, etcetera were gained from this site. I am forever thankful that I was able to be a part of it then. I honestly believe I may be a far different person had I not encountered it.

And so it goes.

He and I met through a game on there. You see, the site used to be set up to incentivize building relationships, and gave a currency to these relationships. It is, in my mind, how social capital later came about. But that’s just an opinion, and, of course, everyone has one.

I felt the anxiety building as the time before the flight got closer and closer. I talked to my friend Rabbit- a friend of mine for years as well- who I knew would be awake at that god awful hour.

“What this guy is thinking i don’t know. I think you should dress nice, be your usual pretty self and hop on the plane. Who could resist you, and who would even want to try? Real life dream girls like you don’t happen every day.”

“Aww.”

“It’s true miss.”

“Real life dream boys like him don’t happen every day either.”

What’s going to happen I don’t know. Things like this take steps. Here goes a leap of faith as I get ready to board that plane not knowing if…

The night before had been filled with a lot of drinking. It was how we’d started. It would ultimately be how…

We awoke entangled in arms. He was the embodiment of a rockabilly dream (or rather, nightmare): tall, muscular, black hair, black clothes, fauxhawk. He carried himself like a badass motherfucker. And he was. Every part of it. Right down to his initials.

This is the man who would ultimately throw down the dominos that would pave the way to adulthood. It happened so fast, it was like a blur. But that doesn’t come until later.

We fooled around a bit in the morning before rushing to get ready for our day. I was originally going to cover a Sci-fi convention downtown. We still needed to get food before and after and then onto the place where we’d first met.

He was a secret. A vice. A tempting tempting all over the map tomcat that catered to my senses in a way that I should have known how crazy he was before the words even escaped him. He wasn’t supposed to be there that weekend. We ignored the caution tape and proceeded anyway. People do the stupidest things when they think they feel a connection with someone.

At the time. we weren’t even official. It mattered not. It was a dive into the deep end, complete with the talks often lead into places they never should have. It is part of what scared the crap out of me.